


Red, Yellow and Green

by PinkFluffyBabboonButt



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Culture fair, Dean and Gabriel being the insecure morons they are, Henna related superstitions, M/M, Neither fluff nor smut, for once Kali is amused by Gabriel and Dean's moron behaviour, henna
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-10
Updated: 2016-08-16
Packaged: 2018-08-07 23:07:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7733356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PinkFluffyBabboonButt/pseuds/PinkFluffyBabboonButt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Winchester brothers and their partners, the Novak brothers are at a cultural event to stop by Kali's henna stall. When a teenager laughs at her younger brothers all four of them rush for the boys' help. Luckily the disaster is averted but suddenly strange things start to happen around the bunker.</p><p>I've finally edited the fic (only some minor stupidities)!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic so it's very crappy. Please bare with me through the crappy summary and the crappy fic :).
> 
> *Unbeta-d*
> 
> I'm done with editing this but I still feel like I've missed something, so I'll be editing this soon again.

On normal days Castiel was an absentminded librarian with his glasses perched up on his nose squinting at anything and everything in the library, but mostly at Dean whom Castiel could see through the large windows in children's area.

On normal days Dean was a car fanatic, working his magic on all the cars that came to the garage, who'd take long swigs of his beer while staring at his librarian boyfriend working in the library across the street.

On normal days Gabriel was the biggest prankster in the town and if he wasn't busy making another batch of delightfully tasty cupcakes in his bakery he would be busy standing near the sign he made for betting with highschool students on Dean and Castiel's across the street eye-fucking.

On normal days Sam was the laid-back teacher and every student's bestie at the local high school who, however, never failed to get strict when grading or dragging his baker husband back home once Gabriel had betted enough for one day.

But today wasn't just any normal day. Today was a warm summer day with all of the four men enjoying the first day of their summer vacation. There was a fair in the nearby field. It was the annual cultural event held for children so none of them had ever before gone there. But this year Kali had invited them to come and at least meet her as she'd be painting henna tattoos on children's palms. So the men had finally gotten out of the bunker they had bought a little before Sam and Gabriel had gotten married a few months back. The bunker being a bunker was strangely located too close to the busy town but none of the men complained since all of their workplaces were conveniently on the same street thus also being at a perfect walking distance from the bunker. Also why would anyone say no to a building were four grown up men could play minotaurs whenever they felt like it.

But none of these things were what made this day so special. It was special because of the children. No matter how badass the four men where on normal days, today they couldn't help turning into puddles of child adoring mush. The fair was buzzing with both excited children and by now exhausted adults. They had visited all the other stalls and huts finishing their round at Kali's Henna Hut. Not a very creative name but it had to do since Kali had spent all her preparation time trying to come up with children friendly henna patterns that all the children would like.

The timing of the men had been perfect as a line had begun to form outside the hut. While Kali squeezed the dark green paste into beautiful patterns on small girls' palms all four of them helped the girls who were done to dry the henna and then scratch it away to reveal beautiful red patterns stretched across the girls' tiny palms. All five of them worked in peace with the men helping and Kali applying henna while she told henna related stories and superstitions to everyone.

Suddenly an angry shout and wave of giggles broke the lovely atmosphere Kali's tiny hut had. The shouts kept getting louder and soon they got so loud that none of the adults could focus on work. When the situation seemed to be go on and get out of control the teacher in Sam and the storyteller in Castiel woke up and they both rushed to the part of the line where the commotion was coming from.

"Silence children!" Sam said with the most teacher like voice he could muster up in front of such young children who had puppy eyes worse than Sam did.

"What's going on?" Castiel piped in.

Two little boys stepped forward from the line, one with his face red from shouting and the other sporting a murderous glare. Castiel knew them both, they often came to the library. Both of them were very lovely unless their sister was somewhere around. That teenager got the thrills from annoying her little brothers. And whenever she annoyed them the sweet little boys turned into such monstrosities as they were now.

"Anna!" Castiel searched for their sister in the crowd of older people who were standing with their younger siblings, children or grandchildren in the line.

A young redhead chewing a bubble gum as obnoxiously as only teenagers could stepped forward. "Hey, Cas."

"What have you done this time Anna?"

"Nothing." Anna kept making the awful smacking noise as she smirked at Castiel, mischief glinting in her eyes.

"Anna!" Castiel grew impatient. The boys were still fussing and it was slowly stirring chaos among the other children too.

Anna rolled her eyes, "Just called them girls. 'Cause you know this thing is for girls. I know cause my classmate does these. Every now and then she comes to school with her hands in all shades of red."

Castiel wasn't sure what he was supposed to say. It wasn't like Mikey and Luci were the first boys of the day to come to Henna Hut. While Cas had been interrogating Anna Sam had brought a few tissues from Kali and gave them to Castiel who proceeded to calm Mikey and Lucia and wipe their faces. Sam on the other hand began to rant to Anna. Teenagers were more of Sam's expertise and he knew very well how to make teenagers stop being annoying and let others have a moment of piece.

Even though Castiel and Sam managed to calm the situation and convince both Mikey and Luci that no one was girly and that both girls and boys could apply henna on their hands the boys were now reluctant to put henna. But instead of leaving the boys kept lingering around. Everyone could tell they still wanted to get the tattoos but didn't want to be girls.

Soon Castiel and Sam had had enough.

Castiel was the first one to approach the boys. With Anna in tow he dragged the boys back into the now much shorter line and kept his grip tight so the whining boys couldn't leave. Soon they were sitting across the tiny table facing Kali who began to tell the story of her father and the henna fiasco on his wedding. Despite the distraction the boys were still feeling shy to get the tattoos so to reassure them Castiel volunteered to get tattooed too. A while later Sam joined the three of them out of curiosity. Although at first the two grownup men got smirky faces from their partners soon the tables turned. All the snarky remarks and snickers directed at Castiel and Sam had instead upsetted Mikey and Luci again. As a punishment Kali made Dean and Gabriel sit down for their own turns, and she did it with only one murderous glare. Soon all of them (and Anna too) were drying and scratching the henna away and sticking their tongues at all the little girls who dared to giggle at them. Well, Gabriel was sticking his tongue with Mikey and Luci supporting him in it while the rest of them threw apologetic glances at all the frowning parents.

At the end of the day as Kali gathered her things so she could rush home Castiel let out a long sigh. The little ruckus hadn't been much but with Mikey and Luci no one never knew. Castiel felt the tingling sensation on the back of his head where he had gotten hit by a falling bookcase once when Anna had irritated the two brothers. Luckily today he had been able to avert the crisis and there was nothing to worry about.

Yet.


	2. Chapter 2

Sam slipped his hand between the piles. Each pile had several pieces of garments neatly folded. He even slid his hand between the folds and clothes to check. Nothing to indicate any pranks. But then again Gabriel could be planning a bigger prank which meant he'd be tame for a day or two. Sam furrowed his brows because how long had Gabriel been behaving now? About five days. That was too much for Gabriel. Either Sam should get ready for the prank of his lifetime or he's having a nightmare with a jumpscare about to pop up on his face on any given moment.

Once Sam was done with inspecting the clothes he proceeded to check the bed. Gabriel had made the bed in the morning and hadn't given Sam a single reason to make it again. Which was very suspicious. Usually Sam would be the one to make the bed in the morning and throughout the day as Gabriel just loved flopping on the bed to ruin the line straight sheets before getting up only to return an hour later.

Sam dropped on his knees to inspect underneath the bed too. No pranking equipment loaded there. After the bedroom Sam checked all the other rooms any four of them used. Both Sam and Castiel could bear with Gabriel's pranks no matter how unsavory or big; It was Dean Sam was worried about. If Gabriel was planning a big prank and he set it off on Dean then either Dean would exile Gabriel from the bunker or he'd start a prank war. Sam was sure that the former was more possible if Gabriel's prank turned out as unsavory and big as Sam suspected but the latter sounded scary enough for Sam to make him even check the yet untouched rooms.

He had just checked the third unused room when he heard Gabriel barge in through the main door causing as much noise as possible. Sure, Gabriel had been doing all the household chores for the last five days and had pampered Sam as if he were a pregnant woman on her last month but his flamboyant nature hadn't vanished. Sam quickly brushed off all the dust from his hair and his clothes and headed for the kitchen where Gabriel and Dean were arguing, already.

"Dean-o stop eye-fucking my brother right in front of me while I'm trying to cook."

"Shut up Gabe." Dean blushed turning away from Castiel, "And don't burn the pie."

"I don't think I'll even remember to bake the pie if you keep doing that here in my kitchen." Gabriel scolded Dean playfully while stirring something in his "magic pan". 

Sam let out a loud cough to both emphasis his husband's words and to remind Dean that he seriously could give a break to both his and Castiel's eyes. And also to announce his arrival. He noticed that something was wrong with Dean only after reaching Gabriel. He had a better view of his brother from there and just one glance was enough for him to know that something was off. However, Sam had at the very beginning of Dean and Castiel's relationship learnt not to interfere the staring competitions. Not that any of them minded, they simply didn't noticed. Sam could still remember the day Dean had bumped into one of his former one night stands in a bar while staring at Castiel. Apparently the woman had some unresolved issues which she kept bringing up indirectly while just "casually" asking how Dean's 'life was going' but in vain. Each of her poison tongue attempts had failed because of the staring. However, Gabriel had had quite a lot of fun giggling right there in front of them all.

Instead of bothering to get fried in the intense staring match Sam decided to help Gabriel. Gabriel had left some potatoes on the counter, probably to peel them. Sam had just angled the knife properly over the potato when Gabriel snatched the potato from him making him gasp.

"Gabe! Seriously, couldn't you be a bit more careful. I had a knife in my hand in case you didn't notice it."

"Ahw, Sammich. I wouldn't have done that if you'd just let me do my job."

Gabriel waggled his eyebrows while trying to tug Sam away. But Sam was far from letting it be.

"Okay, if you're making the main course then I could deal with the pie."

"Nope, Sammy. You could rather go and break that uncomfortable staring contest."

"Nah, let them be at it. You know very well how the staring works."

Sam could tell Gabriel's patience was wearing thin which was surprising. Despite the continuous bantering Gabriel was actually the most patient one of them. Sometimes he could be even more patient than Castiel.

"Well, then Sam you could just go and read because I've got everything covered here." Gabriel turned to Sam and gave hm a peck on the cheek.

Sam. Gabriel hadn't used one of the ridiculous nicknames. It meant he was getting mad at Sam. The thought made Sam angry. Gabriel was the one to behave weird these past five days. If anyone should be wearing thin on patience than it was Sam. And he was getting impatient. Grumpy even. Sam could tell five days of intensive working on household chores just to keep Sam from doing them had been tiring for Gabriel. If Gabriel was planning a mega prank than he'd better do it without behaving weird and if he really is trying to pamper Sam then his ideas on pampering were stupid. Continuous sitting didn't feel like pampering at all.

Letting out an angry huff Sam turned on his heels, "Yeah, you're right. I should go read and don't wait for me. I'm not feeling like eating dinner. I'll help myself if I feel hungry later."

Sam didn't even turn to look how Gabriel had reacted. He barged back to their room and grabbed the first book that came his way only to realize that he was unable to focus on anything at the moment.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a bit smaller than the other two.

Their shoulders brushed.

"Unnecessary," Castiel thought.

Dean pecked Castiel on his cheek.

"The fifth one within thirty minutes," Castiel counted in his mind.

After the sixth day since the fair Castiel had began to track each of the small gestures Dean did. Castiel didn't mean to be rude. He loved everything Dean did. Dean existed and that was enough for Cas to fall in love with him over and over again. But this was wrong. This had been wrong since the fair and Castiel couldn't figure out why. Sam has been too busy trying to deal with Gabriel, who seems to have had a sudden enlightenment, so he hasn't noticed the change in his brother. Besides it's Castiel who does all the PDA with Dean so obviously he notices the change in Dean's behaviour first.

First three days after the fair had been normal, apart from Gabriel's enlightenment. On the fourth day Dean had been stealing glances at their hands as if both him and Castiel were lady Macbeths. The unnecessary amounts of loving gestures and words started on the fifth day. Castiel began to jot everything down on the sixth day. Now on the tenth day Castiel was staring at the last page of his notebook. He'd have to do something about this and very soon. Their summer vacation together would be soon over and Castiel didn't want to waste the remaining days rotting in the bunker and trying to tolerate a cleaning fanatic brother, a grumpy brother-in-law and an overly affectionate boyfriend.

Letting out a heavy sigh Castiel flipped through his notebook again. There had to be something he was missing. There had to be an explanation to both Dean and Gabriel's behavior and Castiel was determined to find it out. He wished Sam had been here with him trying to solve the trouble. Being a teacher Sam was much better at such things. Unfortunately, he was too busy glaring daggers at Gabriel while the latter was watching Dr. Sexy with Dean.

Only clue Castiel had found was that everything started after the fair. But how could the fair be related to anything? Castiel tried to remember what they had done that day. A prank war had ensued that morning, which had delayed the men's arrival to the fair. They had visited all the other huts and stalls before finally heading to Kali's Henna Hut. There they had immediately began to help Kali since the line was long and the impatient children couldn't seem to be able to resist getting the henna smeared all over the place and themselves. At some point Kali had barked the men into taking a break and enjoying themselves instead of getting trapped into helping Kali. Then the Anna incident happened.

Castiel furrowed his brows. Could the recent happenings be related to the Anna incident? Castiel shook his head lightly, no, it wasn't possible.

Nothing special had happened after the Anna incident. The men had just joined Mikey and Luci to put henna on their palms. Could it have something to do with the henna? Now that Castiel thought about it he realized that ever since the fair both Dean and Gabriel had been throwing wary glances at everyone's hands. Castiel shook his head at that too. It didn't make any sense. Why would two grown up men act weird over henna? But all the staring at hands?

Castiel frowned at his own notes while trying to look as discreet as possible. Sam and Gabriel weren't the problem but Dean throwing overly loving glances at him every thirty seconds was. Luckily Dr. Sexy was keeping Dean distracted enough. Castiel went through the events of the last ten days again and when unable to find anything else worth trying he decided to go on with the only option he had.

Getting up from his armchair he carefully snatched Gabriel's phone from the table and sneaked back to Dean and his bedroom. Castiel might be uneducated in pop culture or too awkward for social situations but it never stopped surprising him how Miss Marple like he could get with all the crucial information. Like everyone's phone passwords. With a content smile he slid the screen of Gabriel's phone open.


	4. Chapter 4

This wasn't the first time Gabriel stood in front of Sam like a child would when their mother would catch them stealing cookies. Sam himself was staring at his husband with the most intimidating frown he could muster.

Three nights earlier Castiel had called Kali to inquire if she had seen something strange or different. At first she was surprised to hear Castiel's voice coming from Gabriel's well guarded phone but when Castiel told her it was an emergency of sorts she let it be. Unfortunately, Kali hadn't seen anything out of ordinary happening. And certainly nothing that would leave Dean or, of all people, Gabriel doing strange things. Luckily Kali had the thought of asking Castiel more about everything Dean and Gabriel did. Fifteen minutes later Kali was laughing which was surprising to Castiel since most of the time Kali relied on sarcasm and frowns accompanied by tiny smiles. Once Kali got over her sudden laughing fit she explained her theory of why Dean and Gabriel were doing whatever they had been doing. Once the call ended Castiel decided to see if Kali was right.

First he had to talk to Sam and so he did. Right after his conversation with Kali. In fact he downright dragged Sam out of the living room because apparently a few of Sam's students were doing something utterly unbelivable right outside their bunker. Castiel might be good at slipping things into his pocket but he wasn't a good liar. Castiel thanked his lucky starts for the distraction Dr.Sexy caused.

The two men then observed their partners for a while. It wasn't really that hard since their partners weren't really subtle with the things they did. All the household chores and forced gestures of affection. Now three nights later since the phone call the environment in the bunker was everything but homey.

"So Gabriel," Sam said with an arch of his brows, "Are you going to tell me what this is about or should I pick a guess myself? Because I swear Gabe if you make me do that you'll be in much more trouble than you're in now."

Instead of answering Gabriel kept staring at his toes that had suddenly become oh, so interesting. When Sam kept giving him that intimidating look Gabriel let out a flustered huff and braved himself as much as he possibly could under his husband's angry glare.

"It's just a silly thing Sammy. I swear there's nothing to get mad about. And I promise I'll stop doing all this. And I swear there's no prank attached to this." Gabriel waved his hand around to show the shining kitchen resulted by the two hour cleaning frenzy Gabriel had had earlier that evening.

Sam shifted on his foot, "Fine, I believe you. You'll stop whatever this was. But you're not getting away with this. First you're telling me what this was about, no matter how silly it is."

Gabriel hoped standing silent for long enough would make Sam drop the subject and just let go. For his fortune he didn't need to do that for long because right then Dean decided to barge in with Castiel in tow both their hands filled with warm packets of pizza and beer. They both stopped on their tracks when they saw Sam and Gabriel standing the way they were.

Dean was the first one to break the tensed silence, "How bad was the prank?" It wasn't like Sam and Castiel were the only ones to notice the sudden change in Gabriel. Dean had noticed too but with other matters to worry about Dean hadn't had the time to get ready with a prank of his own.

Dean was about to leave the kitchen to change into something more comfortable for a movie night. However, he hadn't even turned to face away from the three other men when he realized that this wasn't the classic Sam rants about pranking session. This was something worse. Dean turned back to pay attention to the sight in front of him, that would've been very ridiculous if Dean hadn't been the one to feel attacked at that moment. Gabriel was looking like a guilty kid, Sam was sporting one of his patented bitch faces and Castiel was staring at Dean that told him that Castiel knew more than Dean cared to realize.

"Okay guys, what is this about?" He asked with a bewildered look on his face.

Castiel rolled his eyes and shot a conspiratory glance at Sam who unsurprisingly answered to it. Ever since the four men had met each other Dean and Gabriel weren't the only ones to team up. Nowadays, whenever Dean and Gabriel crossed their limits with their pranks or general stupidity Sam and Castiel would share that look together before getting the two other into trouble.

"Dean, I think we should leave Sam and Gabriel to their conversation. Besides, I think, we too need to have a tiny discussion." Castiel finally said leaving the pizzas and beers he was carrying on the table and dragged Dean along.

Once Castiel and Dean left the room Sam turned back to Gabriel, "So are you going to tell me what this all was about?"

"I told you Moose, there's nothing to tell. It was very silly of me —"

"I don't care Gabe. I don't care if it was silly or not. I only want to know why."

When even this didn't gain any answers Sam softened a little. Of course, admitting it would be hard for a grown up man, specially for Gabriel.

"It's about the henna isn't it?"

Gabriel looked up at Sam, surprise evident in his widened golden eyes. "I — How do you— Did you— ?"

"Cas called Kali to ask if she'd seen you and Dean doing anything stupid when we went to the fair."

Gabriel looked even more surprised on hearing about Dean, "You mean Dean's been doing chores too?" He frowned at the thought, "Didn't feel like it."

A stifled huff escaped from Sam. It was adorable how Gabriel could make funny statements even when he didn't mean to.

"No, he hasn't been banning household chores from Castiel. He's been more into PDA." Sam laughed.

"Oh," Gabriel's eyes widened even more, "Oh."

Sam smirked at the ridiculous expression on Gabriel's face, "Yeah. All those forced staring duels." But then Sam straightened and brought the scowl back on his face, "Anyway, we were talking about something else. Kali told Cas that it might have something to do with the henna but she never specified what exactly."

Gabriel began to blush again, "Uh, Sammy. It was one of the superstitions Kali told us about."

Sam raised his eyebrow in question.

"According to the superstition if a newlywed bride has henna on her hands she shouldn't be doing any household chores or else great unluck would befall on the newlywed couple." Gabriel explained.

Sam was stunned. He was dumbfounded. He was in utter disbelief. And he wanted to smack. He wanted to smack Gabriel and turn him into anything else but the overgrown child he was.

"So you are telling me that you've been working your ass off around the house so we don't get unlucky?" He said.

"Yes."

Sam turned away from Gabriel and tried to calm his nerves and then he turned back.

"So I'm the bride?"

"Well, technically—"

"Gabe?" Sam huffed with a dangerous edge in his tone.

"No. But Sammy we just recently got married and then you just had to put henna to encourage the boys. And Kali had to tell about the superstition once we all were looking like party banners. I just didn't want to take any chances at losing you."

It took a while for Sam to figure any suitable responses.

"I don't even know if I should feel honored or if I should just stomp out of the bunker Gabe."

"What if you did neither or just the former?" Gabriel suggested carefully.

Sam knew he should be mad at Gabe. Most probably he should be shouting some sense into Gabriel at the very moment. But he couldn't do any of it. Who could get mad if their adorable husband had been doing all the household chores for the last ten days only to save them from terrible luck.

Sam looked down at both their hands. Originally the green paste had left their hands dark red. Luckily Kali had drawn the patterns only on their palms so usually not waving their hands had been enough to keep them from attracting attention. Ten days later there were only some yellow lines left to remind them of the beautiful squiggles their hands had.

Taking a hold of Gabriel's hand Sam pulled him closer and hugged him tight, "You fool. You got it wrong. The unluck befalls on a bride not a groom and even if it were to fall upon a groom in our case then it wouldn't matter who of us did the household chores. The unluck falls upon the couple not the person. Which means that we still are going to be targeted by unluck."

"Shit. Should've just made your that Neanderthal of a brother do all the chores since he hasn't gathered the guts to marry my brother yet." Gabe murmured into Sam's chest as Sam let out a hefty laugh.


	5. Chapter 5

The way Castiel was dragging Dean out of the kitchen and back to their room was enough of a warning for Dean. Despite being clueless of what's going on he kept his mouth shut and followed Castiel. He remained silent even after reaching their room when instead of explaining what's wrong Castiel began to change into more comfortable clothes. Once Castiel had shimmied into a yellow-black striped t-shirt and black sweatpants made of strange fuzzy material (which was still a great mystery to Dean) he sat down at the edge of their bed and beckoned Dean to join him.

"Dean we need to talk." Was Castiel's blunt start of an upcoming conversation as Dean sat next to him. In media the phrase 'we need to talk' was often portrayed as a beginning to something that's bound to end awfully. This moment Dean could swear that whatever media portrayed was true. He'd been dreading this moment for a while now and during the last two weeks it had become even more evident.

In his state of worried-shitless all Dean could muster was a weak "Yeah?"

"Dean," Castiel took Dean's hand in his own, "These last about two weeks you and Gabriel have been behaving weird. That's what Sam was discussing with Gabriel in the kitchen."

 _"So it hadn't been a prank then,"_ Dean thought to himself still trying to figure out where Castiel was heading. "You mean Gabe's sudden cleaning craze, right?" Dean said trying to lighten the situation. If this was going to be it then Dean could at least make it a not chick-flick moment.

Castiel nodded his head but Dean couldn't miss the eye roll, "Yes, Gabriel's sudden cleaning craze, as you're putting it." With a dramatic pause Castiel continued, "And also your sudden need of PDA."

Dean couldn't help blushing at Castiel's last remark. He'd indeed been unusually clingy and attention seeking lately. At the time Dean had been so desperate to set things right that he hadn't realized how stupid he must've seemed in everyone's, particularly Castiel's eyes. Unable to come up with anything else Dean decided to just remain silent. Unfortunately for Dean Castiel wasn't taking any of this silence. He wanted a confirmation to the answers he'd gotten from Kali. If Kali had been right then Dean was oh, so in trouble.

"Dean, I'd like to know the reason behind all the PDA." Castiel deadpanned. With a tiny shy smirk he added, "Not that I minded any of it."

If the smirk on Castiel's otherwise stoic face was supposed to encourage Dean into talking then it was failing miserably. How could Dean, a grown up man, explain what was going on and why it was going on? Dean wished he could come up with excuses as easily as Gabriel did. On the other hand Gabriel's exchange with Sam earlier in the kitchen didn't seem to have gone smoothly on Gabriel's end. Unable to come up with any logical explanation Dean tried the same trick he used to use on Sam when they were kids. He muttered a string of incoherent sentences with a few clear words here and there while laughing in embarrassment and hoped Castiel wouldn't drag the matter further. The frown Castiel had learnt from Sam proved Dean's hopes wrong.

"Dean," Castiel warned him, "You need to tell me what's going on instead of trying that trick on me. Sam has warned me about it."

"Cas," Dean finally managed to croak, "'s nothing. I just, it's vacation Cas. I thought we finally have time for each other so we could, you know." Dean trailed off. They could what? He could what? Use some old superstition to measure their love. On the other hand it had proved right.

Things had been getting cold between Dean and Castiel for a while now. It was none of their fault. They both were adult men with busy jobs. Once the initial steam in their relationship had passed things eventually got boring. Specially, Dean had become boring. Castiel had a lot of different hobbies and a lot of different things to talk about but Dean on the other hand had nothing. He had his cars but apart from them and a little bit of Vonnegut there wasn't much Dean could do or talk about to keep anyone's interest. At first Dean had only had his suspicions but then even the henna had proved his suspicions right.

Dean could still hear Kali's words ringing in his ears. According to the superstition once the henna had dried the initial color after peeling the dried henna off told how deep the love was. The redder the henna was the deeper one's partner loved them. That day in Kali's Henna Hut Dean had kept a keen eye on Castiel as the four men had peeled of the dried paste from their hands. Castiel's patterns had turned out to be beautifully red, almost the color of blood. Gabriel and Sam's had been red too but there was a brownish edge to their patterns. Only Dean had pitiful orange squiggles on his palms that had lasted surprisingly long. He could see extremely light traces of the orange-ish squiggles still straining across his palms. It told enough about Castiel. His love for Dean was dying but he was still trying. And this is exactly what Dean didn't want. He didn't want to make Castiel keep trying when things weren't supposed to end well anyway.

Dean hadn't realized he was staring at both their hands entangled together before Castiel dragged him back from his thoughts.

"So she was right then?" Castiel asked with an irritated sigh.

"Who? What?" Dean shook his head as he tried to comprehend what Castiel meant.

"Kali. She was right about henna related superstitions." Castiel explained, "Dean, unlike Sam, for me it wasn't really surprising that Gabriel would do something so stupid, but you too?"

At that Dean's head perked up. So even Gabriel had been acting strange because of a henna related superstition. Suddenly instead of paying attention to Castiel Dean was trying to remember which superstition had gotten Gabriel so riled up. This time he was brought back from his thoughts by a hard smack on the back of his head.

"Cas?!" Dean rubbed his head.

"Well, Dean. I believe you very well deserved this smack." Castiel was now glaring at Dean in anger, and if Dean was right, in disappointment as well.

 _"Way to go Dean. You fucked up, again."_ Dean kicked himself mentally. "Cas, listen I can explain." He was still rubbing his head. However now in embarrassment, "Cas, the henna was just to check if I'm right. But if you haven't noticed then I might as well tell you things have been going downhill for quite a while now. Cas, try and understand. I'm not interesting enough for you. You Cas, are a man of many hobbies and interests and I'm a mere car fanatic. Things would've ended anyway. All I did is make sure if I was getting the signals right, do something about it and now most probably let you go. Cause Cas I don't have the right to keep you stuck here with me. With a boring person like me."

Dean wasn't sure what receiving a harder smack on the back of his head meant. Specially after such a heartfelt speech. It wasn't like Dean opened up this much often and all he got was a hard smack and an extremely pissed off glare.

"Dean, I indeed should end things with you," Castiel hissed angrily to him. "You really should be ashamed if you thought that a ridiculous paste made of leaves and the colour it leaves on skin would determine how much I love you. Dean Winchester, I'm not sure how I'm supposed to assure you that you're far from boring, but I can certainly assure you that my love, or love in the first place cannot be measured by a paste meant to decorate skin."

By now Castiel was boring holes into Dean who couldn't deny any of the accusation. He had indeed been stupid and he certainly should be ashamed. Dean wasn't sure anymore about how boring he was, but he certainly knew that he didn't deserve Castiel's love. He tried to pull his hand away from Castiel's so he could get out of the room, out of the whole bunker. Castiel, however, kept his grip firm and didn't let Dean move an inch. Gently rubbing the back of Dean's hand with his thumb Castiel tried to calm the jumpy man.

"Dean, I know we've been busy lately and haven't been able to spend much time together. That's why we decided to spend this vacation together, hadn't we?"

"Yeah."

"Besides you're not just a car fanatic. You're a car fanatic with interesting anecdotes to tell from his childhood. You're a car fanatic with a great taste and knowledge in music. You're a car fanatic with a good knowledge of pop culture and you're a car fanatic with a surprising amount of knowledge in literature. If we're measuring love by how boring we are than I'm the one who doesn't deserve anything. I'm the boring one with nothing else but books to talk about. And don't you try to even deny it. You know very well I'm telling the truth."

Dean wanted to believe Castiel's words. He wanted to trust whatever his boyfriend was telling him but he couldn't. Most probably Castiel was just trying to console him. Dean raised his head to look at Castiel and ask him to stop lying when he noticed Castiel's glossy eyes.

"Cas, buddy?" He asked a frantic feeling raising in his chest. He couldn't deal with puppy eyes of his brother let alone the tears of his lover.

"Shut up Dean. Don't you dare to 'buddy' me." Castiel spat at him while trying to keep the tears back. "You're not the only one insecure here. Besides you're the one with no reasons to be insecure yet still you make me go through this same shit every six months while I'm the one with nothing. I'm the one who should feel insecure and damn if I don't. I do feel insecure Dean. I just look at you and your charming nature and I realize that you could've gotten someone much better yet here you are doting over me."

Now Dean was royally screwed. Castiel was right. Not about the 'Dean deserves better' part, he was right about the 'six months' part. Dean made Castiel go through this same thing nearly every six months and it wasn't fair. Now it was his turn to keep his grip firm around Castiel's hand and assure the blue-eyed man that nothing could ever mean more to Dean than Castiel.

The cycle of assuring each other about their worth went on in a never ending cycle for the next hour before they both had had enough. Their sad insecurity was turning into a playful banter.

"I don't do chick-flick," Castiel mimicked Dean. "Says the man who worried his lover over a henna myth."

"Cas, laugh all you want but please don't tell Sammy." Dean was blushing hard.

"Oh, he knows about it already. In fact it was his idea that we should confront you and Gabriel today," Castiel deadpanned, his head still resting at the crook of Dean's neck.

"Damn it." Dean muttered under his breath, "What'd he say after he found out about it?"

"He would've have laughed at you with Kali for fifteen more minutes if he hadn't been so worried about Gabriel."

"Damn, damn, damn." Dean wanted to rub his face till the skin of his face ripped off but Castiel's hand wrapped around his was too much to resist so he just muttered a few more 'damn its'. After that both him and Castiel fell silent for a long time until Dean was cursing again because Castiel had decided to torture him with henna related information as if Dean wasn't embarrassed to his core already.

Luckily a tiny surprise arranged by Kali two days later was more than enough to make up for the two weeks the men had lost. Kali told them that since her little story session was the reason to ruin their vacation she was going to be the one to pay for their three day trip to a beach. There they'd have no household chores to attract unluck upon 'the bride' and nor the colour of henna on palms would matter much anymore since they all would get perfect tans over their entire body to prove the depth of their love to their partners.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This turned out to be a lot less humorous than I had initially planned to make it, but I still hope you guys like it :).


End file.
